Youth Fencing Organization

[chefencer]

How is youth fencing organized in your division? Is there a circuit? Is there a league? How would you like it to be structured?

[jfarmer]

In our division? (Tenn) the answer is none, no structure, no youth program per se. There is some work being done to create a high school team competition, but it's very new, barely started.

It would be good to develop a youth program into our division, any pointers?

[chefencer]

Well, I've just started a similar discussion in the VA forum and I'll certainly cross-pollinate the two threads. I suspect this topic isn't clearly addressed in most divisions and that this issue is now or will be soon coming up on everyone's calendar. Part of the problem is there aren't many guidelines and we're making this stuff up as we go along, so if we can find out what parents/fencers want and coordinate that with the realities of scheduling, logistics and resources we can have a better beginning.

VA has a set of rules for HS fencing, but no structure, yet. Y fencing is less developed. VA does have a youth Fencing Coordinator on the Executive Committee.

[Downtown]

In NC it is about the same. Some clubs make an effort to hold youth events and that is all I am aware of. One thing that has been talked about lately is to try and get the few high school teams to become involved with USFA. Obviously these clubs get no public funding and are mostly dry foil. ( I think.)

I am not a Division officer, but I would be interested how you are going about this and what sort of progress you are making.

[Phincer]

Attempts have been made in our division by a few clubs to try to organize a series of youth events, but it does not have the full cooperation of every club in the division. So Clubs A & B go together and get run little youth tournaments, then Club C has a series of tournamments, then Club D grabs an RYC or SYC, and then every once in a while a club holding an open will tack on a Y12 or Y14 event.

Nothing cohesive or properly managed, but opportunities exist for youth fencers to compete in a low-key, less stressful environment.

[chefencer]

Some of the ideas that have come up in our thread:
An individual, statewide youth circuit with from 6 to 12 events included in the points total with each club hosting 1 Y event every year.

Hosting some Y weapons on Sunday after epee (Sat. is traditionally used for foil). Using those strips and refs while senior saber finishes up.

Creating a cadre of high school referees to officiate the HS and Y events to increase their experience and reduce the strain on the Division's refs.

[passata_sotto]

We have, what I believe, to be one of the most well run youth programs regardless of size. It was started in 1999 ".... as both an opportunity for recreational fencers to compete locally and a training ground for nationally minded athletes.

Here is a link as to how it is organised:

http://www.utahfencing.org/youth_league


Although the format and rules are listed on the UVSF club site, our youth league covers our entire district.

In the fall we run a similar youth epée league under the direction of another club with the addition of "Seniors"

[chefencer]

Excellent! Thanks for the resource!

[dcmdale]

We started in the SF Bay area where they have the BayCup and are now in one of the many less organized areas of youth fencing, although we are at the point of graduating out.

The BayCup, at least when we were there, was incredible. It basically provided 4-6 age/weapon/gender appropriate local events every year within a day's drive. Beginners could break in at their level. Good fencers could fence up. At Y14, my daughter could fence 20+ weekends (30+ local events) against a variety of skill levels. It gave you a good feel for where your kids were relative to national fencers, so you could easily tell whether you were ready for a NAC. The schedule was designed so that there wasn't a problem with competing events that might split the competitors (making you guess which one you wanted to go to). It was pretty common to see 20+ at a woman's event. I know that there were problems after we left because events were profitable and, according to some, not fairly divided. And then there were problems with the USFA because it spanned divisional lines.

Where we are now, are very hit and miss. Most events are open/single gender; therefore, not particularly youth friendly, especially for the girls. When we first arrived, it was common to see 2-3 events scheduled for the same day which meant that you had to guess who was going where. (That is better now both because of better division coordination and AskFred). The density of fencers in our division is just about what it was in California, but the density of competitive fencers is a lot less. There just isn't the conveyor belt between beginning fencing/club bouting to competitive fencing that existed in the Bay Area.

Frankly, the biggest difference is that somebody (Eric Dew) stepped up to organize it in California and nobody has here.